169

By Amos Dillard

Want to guess what this number stands for? No, it’s not our average attendance at Grace City Church. No, it is not how many people have been baptized (even though those are great things, of course). This number is something we celebrate just as much because it points to the depth and the direction of the people at Grace City. This number represents how many NEW disciple-making relationships started this year by someone who considers Grace City his or her home church.

Let that sink in for a minute.

One hundred and sixty-nine opportunities for disciples to be intentional about helping others trust and follow Jesus. Building relationships with those who would be considered far from God and those who are taking the next step of faith as they follow Jesus in their lives. Can you imagine the ripple effect this will have over the next decade or two? Thousands of lives will be touched.

It gives 169 greater meaning.

To be honest, it is easy to overlook simple initiatives like this that do not produce immediate results, or that are not considered praiseworthy in the church-planting world. However, I wouldn’t trade these new relationships, these new opportunities, for any amount of money or recognition. Someday, the seeds being planted today will help reach our city, state, and places around the world. They will influence the next generation and bring lives into God’s Kingdom. They will enable us to be the disciples God told us to be and multiply exponentially as disciples continue to make disciples.

I wouldn’t trade this number for anything, and our prayer is that the number continues to grow in the years to come.

Please pray with us.

Tara (pictured above, left) would ask you to do so. Her sister Lisa (above, right) is a disciple at Grace City Church. Lisa was challenged to start a new disciple-making relationship with her sister, who was far from God. After a year of questions, Bible studies, and prayer, Tara also became a disciple by trusting and following Jesus. Today, we celebrate the miracle God performed in Tara’s life and rejoice with Lisa who was intentional and courageous about sharing the gospel with her sister.

Help us reach more Taras. Help us take the gospel to people like Mahsa, whose incredible conversion testimony you can read on the next page. Join us in starting more disciple-making relationships where we live, work, and play.

Let’s make 169 even more significant!

About the Writer: Amos Dillard and Stephen Kimbrell are North American Ministries church planters starting Grace City Church in Irvine, California. For more information, visit GraceCityIrvine.com.

A Muslim Comes to Christ: Mahsa’s Testimony

My name is Mahsa. I am from Iran. I want to tell my story about how I became a believer. Everybody born in Iran is a Muslim. You don’t have any choice not to be Muslim…to be a Christian or some other thing. I saw so many people killed, innocent people being killed in my country—the educated people, the people the age of me. I was thinking, “How could God be like this? So much hatred, so much brutality.” They were saying the name of God, but they were killing people.

When I came here, I wasn’t a believer. Before I became a believer, something bad happened to my family. My brother-in-law got cancer. I was worried about my family, my sister. When he [my brother-in-law] found out, he was crying, and it was a bad moment for me.

Maybe I said to people, “I don’t believe in God” but in my heart, I felt something about God. After that, maybe three months later, one of my friends explained and introduced Jesus to me. It was the first time I had heard the story about who Jesus was and what His message was. I read John 3:16, that God sent His beloved Son to us. If we believe in Him, we have eternal life. At the moment I believed that, God came after me and called me. He wanted to say, “I am here. I love you, and I care about you.”

When Islam came to my country, it killed so many people. The brutality and anger—nothing about love and kindness, the things I see in Christianity, in Jesus, and in His message. I came to Grace City Church, and it was a miracle for me.

Mahsa has continued to grow in her relationship with Jesus Christ, declaring her faith in Him by expressing an outward act of baptism on May 6, 2018.